Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

James George Cavalaris

Adam Joseph Lenart

Narayanan Ganapathy

Randall Edward Aull

Doron J Holan

James A Schwartz, Jr

Santosh Sharad Jodh

David J Roth

Eric Frank Nelson

Chad R Siefert

Esaias Engelbertus Greeff

Douglas Keith Brubacher

Jason T Cobb

Cameron S Brodeur

Arvind M Murching

Neeraj Ladkani

Jason C Knichel

Kuo-Shu Huang

Scott Chao-Chueh Lee

Sriram Sampath

Alain L Michaud

Emily Nicole Wilson

Ara Bernardi

Shen Wang

Jason Stewart Wohlgemuth

James Anthony Schwartz, Jr

Jordan Rian Cohen

Jamie Hunter

Ullattil Shaji

Lonny Dean McMichael

Samuel David Adams

Paresh J Maisuria

Gaurav Jagtiani

Sharad Goel

Kushal Suresh Narkhede

Naga Govindaraju

Yuri Dotsenko

Benjamin Scott McGregor

Niket Ashok Sanghvi

Minsang Kim

Binit Ranjan Mishra

Aacer Hatem Daken

Cody D Hartwig

Rajiv Poonamalli

Steven Adrian West

Neil Sandlin

Emma Sutherland Boyd

Mark Henriksen Phaedrus

Peter Hanpeng Jiang

Andrew Gordon Cunningham

Emily Cara Clemens

Faisal Ansari

Vijaybalaji Madhanagopal

Christina Marianne Curlette

Mukhtar Ahmed

Sri Harsha Kanukuntla

Drew Douglas Cross

Sharon Scarlet Tang

Jennifer Marie Bourlier

Terence Kwok Tak Chan

Raz Meir Aloni

Jordan Cohen

Alain Michaud

In-place recovery of fatal system errors at virtualization hosts. A device identifies an occurrence of a fatal system error in the first instance of a host operating system (OS) executing in a computer system. The device determines to perform an in-place recovery for the fatal system error. The device performs the in-place recovery, including pausing the execution of a virtual machine (VM) by the first instance of the host OS, preserving a state of the VM within system memory of the computer system, and resuming the execution of the VM by a second instance of the host OS executing in the computer system based on the state of the VM that is preserved within the system memory of the computer system.

In-place recovery of fatal system errors at virtualization hosts

A computer system is configured to manage a value of a variable via firmware. Managing the value of the variable includes detecting a system management interrupt (SMI), causing the computer system to enter a system management mode, in which a request associated with the SMI is handled by the firmware. In response to determining that the SMI is generated by a baseboard management controller (BMC) and that a cause thereof is associated with reading or writing a value of a variable, one or more parameters associated with the variable are obtained from the BMC. Based on the cause of the request and the one or more parameters, the value of the variable is read or overwritten with a new value. The value or the new value is then sent to the BMC, which in turn passes the value or new value to a second computer system over a network.

Out of band method to change boot firmware configuration

A computer system includes a baseboard management controller (BMC) configured to manage values of a plurality of variables stored in a flash via firmware. Managing the values of the plurality of variables includes generating a capsule containing a request for reading a value of a variable among the plurality of variables or overwriting the value of the variable with a new value. The capsule is then sent to the firmware, causing the firmware to access the flash to read the value of the variable or overwrite the value of the variable with the new value, and cause the value or the new value to be transmitted to the BMC. In response to receiving the value or new value of the variable, the BMC passes the value or the new value of the variable to a second computer system over an out-of-band network.

Out-of-band method to change boot firmware configuration

Aspects of the disclosure provide a system having a memory area associated with a computing device and a processor. The processor executes to classify device panel descriptors and location descriptors according to associated device instances. The processor generates device panel objects using the classified device panel descriptors and location descriptors. A schema comprising device panel locations and adjacency relationship information is populated for the computing device based on the generated device panel objects. The processor provides the populated schema as dynamic device properties to one or more operations executing on the computing device.

Device panel capabilities and spatial relationships

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media are provided for publishing, discovering, connecting with and activating services in a peer-to-peer environment. Services available in association with a first computing device are determined and encoded with instructions for accessing and understanding such services via their respective activation protocols. The encoded services are published via a publication protocol such that they are discoverable by at least a second computing device, irrespective of whether such services may be activated via the publication protocol. The second computing device discovers the available services via the publication protocol and accesses and understands the instructions associated with a desired service. Upon receipt of a request from the second computing device, via the activation protocol, to activate the requested service, the requested service is activated by the first computing device.

Controlling service discovery and activation among peers

A computer with cached pre-assembled device configurations for a faster and more reliable user experience. Pre-assembled device configurations may be obtained in a variety of ways, for example, by pre-processing installation information obtained from driver packages, or by being retrieved from a suitable source. Pre-processing driver packages may involve, for example, copying binary files to their run-time locations and computing settings for the device and driver. The pre-processed device configuration settings may be cached and indexed in a database. When a device connects to the computer, a cached device configuration may be applied to the device without performing a full installation process. Pre-assembly of device configurations may be performed before a device first connects to the computer, for example, upon detecting an applicable driver or during manufacture of the computer, and is not restricted to being performed on the same computer on which the device configuration will be used.

Device configuration with cached pre-assembled driver state

In one or more embodiments, hardware configuration state data for specialization of a portable installation of an operating system may be stored on a per hardware configuration basis. Specializations may include designation of boot start drivers, driver settings, device settings, and other state data that may vary based on hardware configurations of different machines on which the portable operating system is loaded. In a pre-boot environment, an identity of the current computing device is resolved and used to look-up corresponding hardware configuration state data that is available. When booting of the operating system on a new computing device is detected, the operating system is loaded using default state settings. An optimization routine may then be performed to create and store hardware specific hardware configuration state data for the computing device that defines specializations for subsequent boots of the operating system on the computing device.

Operating system hardware configuration state specialization

A firmware update system is described that collectively handles firmware updates for hardware resources of a computing device. The firmware update system may be configured to handle firmware updates in a consistent manner across different computing platforms/architectures. A data structure is defined to associate each updateable resource with a corresponding identifier to enumerate the updateable resources to the firmware update system. The firmware update system may reference the data structure to produce representations of the each individual resource that provide an operating system level abstraction through which detection, analysis, acquisition, deployment, installation, and tracking of firmware updates is managed. Using the representations, the firmware update system operates to discover available firmware updates collectively for the enumerated resources, match the updates to appropriate resources, and initiate installation of the updates.

Firmware update discovery and distribution

A computer system that recognizes multi-function devices and associates functions with multi-function devices. Each multi-function device may be represented by a multi-function object, allowing tools, applications or other components within the computer to take actions relating to the entire device or relating to a function based on the association of that function with other functions in the same device. These actions include displaying information about devices, instead of or in addition to information about functions. Actions also include selecting functions based on proximity within a device. Functions may be associated with a multi-function device using a unique device identifier provided by the device or generated for the function based on a connection hierarchy between functions and the computer. Devices may be configured to provide the same identifier regardless of the transport over which the device is accessed.

Multi-function device ID with unique identifier

Firmware update system

A computer system that accesses multi-transport devices and associates device instances of the multi-transport device with each other. Devices provide the same device identifier such as a device unique identifier regardless of the transport over which the device is accessed. A visual representation for the multi-transport device may be provided to a user using the device identifier. Also, a single functional representation for the multi-transport device may be provided based on an identifier provided by each function of the device. The functional representation may be independent of the addition and removal of transports and allows abstracting device access via multiple transports from a user and an application. Transports may be selected at an application and/or a system level. Operating characteristics of available transports may be used to select a desired transport, based on transport requirements specified by the application, the user or the system.

Generalized architecture to support representation of multi-transport devices

Growing community of inventors

Kirkland, WA, United States of America

James George Cavalaris